DraftBeginnings · Armstrong

Before Pecking Order, there was a Facebook group

The Pecking Order Diaries · Building a business, raising a family, and occasionally wondering what on earth I’ve gotten myself into.

Let me get something on the record first, because it’s going to matter later: the business did not come first.

Armstrong Community Connect did.

It’s a Facebook group for people who live in Armstrong. The idea was simple. I wanted a place where residents could stay better informed, ask questions, report concerns, say what’s bugging them, talk through what’s going on in town, and find out what happened at city council.

Yes, "say what’s bugging them" was in the job description. I built a place for grievances on purpose. In a small town. On Facebook. You can decide for yourself how that’s going.

It is not the city. It isn’t an official city channel and it never pretended to be. It’s an independent group, and I run it as myself. If you want the official word, go to the city. If you want to ask your neighbors a question, come on in.

Over time it has turned into a very specific kind of reading list. Ordinances. A lagoon and the DNR. The speed limit on Glasgow Street. Sidewalks. Signs. Gym access. The Sunshine Law. A proposed sales tax on the April ballot.

There’s also a recurring four-part set of graphics for council meetings, because apparently that’s who I am now: a reminder before the meeting, "Questions, Comments, or Concerns?", "Tonight at the City Council Meeting," and afterward, "After the Gavel: Neighbor’s Notes."

I’m telling you all this because I don’t want anyone to think Pecking Order started as a clever plan to find customers. If it had, I would have picked a hobby with fewer meeting agendas.

The group was just about neighbors knowing what’s going on and having somewhere to say so.

No lesson here. That’s just where it started. The next idea involved a carport.

More on that one soon.